Junior Maia Song Contest

The Junior Maia Song Contest, abbreviated to JMSC, is a song competition which has been organised by Emisora de Televisión Loafousia since 2017 and is open to members of the MBU. It is held in a different city every year, but the same city can host the contest more than once. The first edition, officially announced on 30 March 2017, will be hosted in Motygashok, Loafousia, in Spring 2017.The contest has its official logo.

The competition has many similarities to the Maia Song Contest from which its name is taken. Each participating country/broadcaster must send an act according to the rules of the contest (see below), which primarily focuses on the act being aged younger than 16 at the time of the song. The participating countries must then vote for their favourite entries, the winner being the song that has received the most points from the juries.

History
In late February 2017, discussions were started between ETL and the MBU about the beginning of the contest, following a huge increase in popularity for the main contest in Loafousia. Around a month later, on 30 March 2017, the contest was officially announced with a simple logo and "Coming soon". Later that day, confirmations for the first edition, to be held in Motygashok were opened, as well as further details about the contest.

Contest logo and theme
A simple text and icon was introduced as the logo. As the first edition started the logo changed for different editions depending on the hosting nation. the hosting nation would create a logo and a slogan.

Rules
The following rules were announced on the day of the contest's confirmation.


 * The artist must be under 16 years old at the time of the entry.
 * Additionally, the artist must be under 20 years old at the time of sending the entry.
 * All entries must be sent for approval before being revealed.
 * Overly mainstream artists or songs will not be accepted.
 * The song must not have competed in the (Junior) Eurovision Song Contest.
 * The song must be at least two minutes in length, and no longer than six minutes in total.
 * The song cannot have been performed in the (Junior) Maia Song Contest before, or any other spin-off, including if the song has been sung by a different artist.
 * An artist cannot be sent twice in the same contest. In the event of a dispute, the Reference Group of the MBU will reach a verdict - taking into account the time of submission, relevant wiki pages, and country info.
 * Entries must be free of hateful lyrics.
 * YouTube links must be provided for the entry, or in the event that the planned entry does not have a music/lyric video, a video must be sent in its place.

Winners
So far, there has been 1 winner - Arkaystia.

Participation
So far, 7 countries have confirmed their participation in the contest.